Butterfly Network Inc.

Students at the UConn School of Medicine are the first in the nation to use Butterfly iQ, a new handheld, full-body ultrasound system that plugs into an iPhone and is powered by a microchip, as part of their curriculum.

Guilford, Connecticut-based Butterfly Network Inc. created the first-of-its kind device, which at $2,000 is much more affordable than cart-based portable ultrasound machines that can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Dr. Meghan Herbst, School of Medicine associate professor and ultrasound director in UConn’s Department of Emergency Medicine, is spearheading use of the device in medical education at UConn. She envisions the Butterfly iQ becoming as essential as a physician’s stethoscope.

“I will have an ultrasound unit on me, kind of like my stethoscope but a different tool — I think a better tool — to really look inside patients’ bodies,” she says. “Not only can you do everything that the cart-based machine can do, but the cart-based machine has a different probe for each frequency of sound.”

Butterfly iQ eliminates the need for multiple probes, with the silicon chip system able to create linear, curved, or phased ultrasound beams.

Students who tested out the device were impressed by the ease of use and image quality.

“It’s totally intuitive,” says third-year medical student Sam Southgate.“It’s like a modern tech device rather than a piece of medical equipment.”

Third-year medical student Zach Bovin agrees: “The first thing I noticed was that the [image] quality was as if I had the big ultrasound machine next to me.”

First- and second-year medical students are using the devices in their anatomy lessons, Herbst says, and fourth-year students recently used them during a four-hour ultrasound session as part of their preparation to transition to residency.

Butterfly Network aims to democratize health care, marketing director Guru Sundar says, whether that means providing devices to physicians in underserved areas or to students who might not have previously had the opportunity for such hands-on ultrasound experience.

“I hope to incorporate ultrasound into the first- and second-year Delivery of Clinical Care course, where they can ‘see’ the heart after learning how to listen to it, or ‘see’ the liver and thyroid after learning how to examine these organs,” Herbst says. “I also hope to have some of the fourth-year students independently scan while on certain clerkships, such as emergency medicine and critical care.”

The units are also being used in the Emergency Medicine Residency Program.

Those at UConn and in the health care industry at large believe the technology could revolutionize health care. According to Forbes, the company has raised $250 million in investments, including from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“For us at UConn to be right at that cutting-edge, right at the future, is very exciting,” Southgate says.